Lincoln (Neb.) - Aug. 19, 1998 - University of Nebraska Regents, meeting in an emergency conference call, accepted a $125 million gift to the university Aug. 18.
The gift, from the estate of Mildred Topp Othmer, had been tied up in a legal challenge by Othmer's niece. The settlement agreement is subject to approval by other beneficiaries of Othmer's will, which include the Omaha public schools and universities and hospitals in New York state, where Othmer and her late husband, Donald, lived.
James Moeser, chancellor of the University of Nebraska- Lincoln, said the gift is the "most important asset" ever passed to the institution. Plans call for using a portion of the gift to build an addition to the Walter Scott Engineering Center to house chemical engineering facilities. Funds also would help build an addition to Love Library and improve a variety of academic programs.
"I see this as an excellence fund, which will allow the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to rise to a whole new level of excellence, especially in the areas of research and graduate studies," Moeser said. "I want to begin to design the university of the future taking advantage of what this fund provides because I think this is probably the single most important asset that has ever come into the possession of the university. Its impact will be felt 50 and 100 years from now. This university will be in many ways transformed if we use this gift intelligently and are disciplined."
The chancellor added that university officials "must guard against using (the gift) as a replacement for core state support; it needs to be an enhancement not a replacement."
Mr. Othmer, a noted chemical engineer and professor at Polytechnic Institute of New York in Brooklyn, and his wife each invested $25,000 with Omaha financier Warren Buffett in 1961. The original $50,000 grew to an estimated $570 million. Mr. Othmer died in 1993. He left $1.5 million in his will to endow a professorship in chemical engineering at Nebraska, his alma mater. Funds from Mrs. Othmer's estate would increase that endowment to $2.5 million. She also was a graduate of the University of Nebraska.
The rest of Mrs. Othmer's gift would be held in an endowment fund. Some 75 percent of the income from that fund would support chemical engineering programs at the university and help upgrade technology on the Lincoln campus. An additional 12.5 percent will be earmarked toward enhancing other academic programs. The remaining 12.5 percent is devoted to "enhancing the facilities and functions of the NU regents and university administration."
The estate has been in dispute since shortly after Mrs. Othmer's death in April. Her niece contested whether Mrs. Othmer was of sound mind in 1988 when the will was drawn. The settlement announced Aug. 17 awards the niece and her family $19.5 million after estate taxes, some $45 million before taxes.
The announcement comes soon after the receipt of a $32.2
million gift from C. Edward and Carole McVaney of Denver, Colo.,
to enhance computer education through the J.D. Edwards Honors
Program in Computer Science and Management.
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